There are several points made in Alex Murdoch’s response to my reply to the Bristol  League questions which require clarification from myself.  First of all, like Alex, I was surprised that the Bristol League  published the replies on their website.  I was of the same opinion that the replies were for the Bristol League committee only.

In his opening paragraph Alex suggests that my reply had been edited because some of the comments were incorrect.  The comments were not incorrect.  Alex made a complaint to Bristol about some of them and as a result of that, some editing by Bristol took place.

In paragraph 2, Alex refers to the Trade Committee again.  The operation of the Trade Committee is outside the control  of the Chairman  and the Management Committee.  It is  separate and independent, and Alex knows this.

In the 4th paragraph with regard to the BOA meeting, Alex  asked me to attend a meeting in London on a Wednesday morning after there had been  an international match, the last for several years, in Barrow in Cumbria on the Tuesday evening.  I drove back to Middlesbrough on the Tuesday night after the match and then took an early train to London on the Wednesday morning and attended the meeting.  With regard to a report, I have no recollection that Alex ever asked for one and, if he had, there would have been very little of significance to table tennis to mention as this particular meeting was in the build up to the 2004 Winter Games, in which table tennis did not participate, and the Olympic  Youth Games in 2004 in which table tennis was not included.  If asked, I would certainly have provided one. I never suggested that members were not interested in networking.  The point that I made was that I used the networking to gain significant financial opportunities for table tennis that , in my 12 years  experience on the National Olympic Committee, is something which is not common amongst NOC members.

With regard to  the ETTA President, Johnny Leach MBE, I have a great deal of respect for Johnny.  He was an excellent President throughout the whole of my 12 years in office and I did not  and would not make any statement that was detrimental to him.  With regard to the Honours Committee and their wish to nominate me for President after the 2003 elections, this  initiative  did not come from me nor was it put forward in a meeting I attended.  As opposed to being responsible for it, by the time that Alex  objected I had not even had an opportunity to decide whether it was something I wanted to do at  the time or not.

With regard to Alex standing for Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Federation, I am very surprised to read that he believes he lost the election against the current Deputy Chairman by just one vote.  It was agreed by all concerned before the vote that the election, in which only the national associations who were members of the Commonwealth were entitled to vote, that the number of votes cast for each candidate would remain private to the Elections officer and the two scrutineers.   I was not entitled to vote in this particular election and  I have no idea, although I was in the Chair, of the size of the majority.

Alex makes the point that there was a Management Committee meeting prior to the AGM in 2003.  The purpose of this Management Committee meeting was purely to deal with matters relating to the AGM which was perfectly normal in my administration and, therefore, this was entirely correct that the Management Committee met and ensured as far as possible the smooth running of the AGM.

With regard to Alex Murdoch’s statement that there are current attempts to undermine him at National Council and the AGM, the democratic structure of the ETTA provides that these meetings are  the correct place to raise  questions and hold the Management Committee to account.  This is one of the important functions of both meetings.  Over the last six years I have raised a number of matters in these meetings in the correct way   and at the appropriate time on  the Agenda and I believe that this is to the benefit of the sport.  It is  not necessarily a question of undermining the Management Committee, the questions are valid and the fact that I raise them has been the subject of many favourable comments that I have received from members of National Council and delegates at the AGM as, without my intervention, these suggestion s or aspects of the debate would never have been considered at those meetings.  When I was Chairman there were a number of Councillors who were diligent in holding my administration to account and this is democracy working in table tennis and, so far as I am concerned, long may it remain.

Alan Ransome
3 March 2009